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Back in my final year, one of my classmates girlfriend was leaving college for work. He had got her some gift. But to make it personal he wanted some sort of poetry written along with it. Till then I have never tried my hand at writing any sort of poem which has a romantic touch to it. So I decided to try.

After I wrote it I realized that I feel better writing melancholic poetry than romantic ones. Anyway here’s what I came up with that day.

Just want you to know

Love is mysterious, it has a life of its own.
Love lures you to unknown pastures,
Untrodden grounds, un-ventured paths,
Love once and changed you are.

Days cease to be days,
Nights even more so.
Sleepless nights and dream-filled days,
They take over your life.

I was unaware of what I missed,
Till I met you.
You took over my life and from,
Hence tis not the same.

When my lips curl into a smile unbidden,
Know this, you fill my thoughts,
My heart and my life…
Everyday feels cheerful with you in it.

You are you.
Nothing can describe what you mean to me.
With you by my side,
I feel joyous, safe and content.
You make my life complete.

At this moment of time,
I just want you to know,
No matter how many miles separates us,
You my dear will be in my heart.

I will miss you, be sure of that,
Yet I do know this that
Memories of you will help me
Cross this short chasm of time and distance.

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We had a Potluck lunch in our office last week. When I mentioned it to few of my friends and relatives, they were curious as to why it was named ‘POTLUCK’. Did we get lucky to get some special food? or is it that some lucky person got the maximum food? This got me thinking and I searched online.

pot luck[1]

noun: potluck

a situation in which one must take a chance that whatever is available will prove to be good or acceptable.

“he could take pot luck in a town not noted for its restaurants”

North American

a meal or party to which each of the guests contributes a dish.

plural noun: potlucks

“a potluck supper”

There were a lot of references to Potluck but the following one is interesting.

According to one source[2], the word can be traced back to Middle Ages in Europe. ‘Potluck’ supposedly came from the practice of keeping leftovers of meal in pots. These pot would be kept warm. This was particularly popular in the inns of that time. When people came by for food, they had to be lucky to get something good from the pot. It was a meal that had food available that was the ‘luck of the Pot.’

One of the original meaning of potluck, meant a meal with no planned menu. So an unexpected guest might have to accept potluck instead of a meal planned with the guest in mind.[3]

But our modern day potluck is not done in the fashion of olden days. Our Potluck was a sort of pre-planned, team food event [In this case Lunch]. We made a list of everyone and got another list of what all they can bring from home such as

Starters

Rice [Plain & Variety]

Chappathi/Roti

Different Curry

Cakes & Sweets

Everything was covered, and on the day of the potluck, we blocked some seats in our cafeteria. The whole meal was a treat in itself. People from different backgrounds got a wide variety of food. Everything was delicious. And for people like me who stay in PG [as a paying guest], any home-made food is like divine nectar. 🙂

The only problem we had on the whole was, since people were so enthusiastic to bring food and so a lot of rice items were wasted. We gave it away to the cafeteria staff. But still it was a lesson for us to plan carefully for next time.

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I bought the new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite few months back. And what else can I say except that its awesomeness all wrapped up.

Buying a kindle has been one of my dreams. From 2007 when it first came out I have been following its progress, waiting for price to come down. And well..waiting to earn for myself :). Meanwhile I just kept using my old phone to read eBooks [Note. the screen size was approx. 2×2 inch, I myself don’t know how I used to read on it].

I know there are other e-book readers out there too. But the Kindle always pulled at my heart.

So the Kindle. What is so special about it? Why did I spend almost 10k on a tablet like device which will only let you read books? With that much amount you can get a good quality tab which will let you play games, listen to music, chat, browse and do such tasks which you never even thought of. This is what almost every person has asked me when they see me using it. And I am sure a lot of people think of it, if not ask out aloud.

So here’s my reason of why a Kindle is worth its weight in gold (erm..maybe not Gold. It’s too costly these days).

I live in a place which is almost 15-16 hours travel away from my hometown. So any visits home mean endless hours of boredom. For me reading matters more than social networking stuff like Facebook, Whatsapp etc. So I always end up reading something during my travel. But using a tablet/Phone to read books drains the battery. My tab lasted for around 5 – 6 hrs of its battery life before I had to close it. And I wouldn’t have even been halfway past my total journey time by then. I could carry a book to read instead of eBooks. But I usually end up finishing it soon and taking up a lot of books would increase my luggage unnecessarily.

And therein lies my reason as to why I love my Kindle and spent a lot for it.
– I get a lot of battery power. I just need to charge once in a few weeks and that is enough.
– I get to carry as many e-books as I want to.

Other reasons:-
– The lighting is from the bottom of the screen. It falls on the screen and not directly on the eyes. [Better than Tab/ Phone which seems too bright in the dark]
– I can use the Kindle in the sunlight also. No glare on the screen. Can’t say the same for mobiles/Tabs

Once I decided to buy the kindle there was confusion as to which one to
– Normal
– With WiFi
– With 3G

I chose the one with WiFi, since it has an experimental browser, which you can actually use to browse simple webpages [check mail, read fan-fiction …]. And on top of that it has in-built light whereas the normal one doesn’t.

In the case of the Kindle with 3G I felt it was costly. The device will grab whichever 3G network was available. But since I have mobile internet. I can always create a Wifi hotspot and use it with the Kindle. There was no other new feature other than that. So I stuck to the Kindle Paperwhite with WiFi in the end. 🙂

But I have to say, lot of people won’t agree with this reasoning. But as they say, ‘To each his own’.

After I got the kindle I started loving it even more… But that is going to be another post.

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As part of my target to read a lot of not so famous books, I decided to read ‘Work’. One reason was it was written by Louisa May Alcott. She is one of the authors whose work I keep re-reading. Her ‘Little Women’ series was one amongst them. Though her novels are set against the backdrop of the 19th Century, I find that I could relate myself to different characters.

So with that in mind, I started off with ‘Work- A Story of Experience’. It was a good, I couldn’t put it down at multiple point thought the plot. But overall if I look at it, It didn’t measure up to the expectations I had. There was too much of a ‘this is right’ and ‘this is wrong’ undertones throughout the book. Though to tell the truth, that adds to the charm of it.

The book is the journey of Christie Devon aspiring independent women who wants to do something worthwhile in life. It starts of with Christie at the starting of her adulthood. After spending her childhood with her Aunt and Uncle, she just wants to work for herself and be independent rather than being just another persons wife.

Her reasoning with her Aunt on wanting to search for that elusive something, which we all search for in life made me sit and think.

“Do you see those two logs? Well that one smouldering dismally away in the corner is what my life is now; the other blazing and singing is what I want my life to be.”

“Bless me, What an idee! They are both a-burnin’ where they are put, and both will be ashes to-morrow; so what difference doos it make?”

Christie smiled…. she added earnestly.

“I know the end is the same; but it does make a difference how they turn to ashes; and how I spend my life……”

Throughout her book Christie tries out different careers such as a maid, an actor, governess and so on. Some of it she is successful. At some work she falls into trouble and has to drag herself out of it all.The life of women during that time and how working for a living established their lives could be seen throughout the book.You could say it was the underlying theme of the whole book.

There were points in which I felt the character was too much of a Mary-sue. And then again at other points, her flaws were mentioned clearly. It was like a see-saw ride for me. At some point I would be admiring her for doing a particular act. And at other times I ould be shaking my head, asking myself why I was still reading it.

Christie’s love life which is touched upon, and the way she wanted and was tempted to take the easy way out was realistic enough. Her confusion between David and Fletcher was funny at points particularly with Fletcher. I didn’t actually expect him to pop up multiple times throughout the book though,

Multiple plots got merged near the end. We get to know how some of the characters we met were actually related. The relationship between Rachel and David was a surprise. Though in hindsight I ought to have made the connections.

As with some of her other works, the Civil war plays a role in how the plot moves on towards the end. But what really surprised me the most was

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

Highlight between the brackets to read.

[David’s death. I never quite thought the author would kill him off. I always thought it would be a happy ending. Though true to her point, she does show that Christie can life her life independently even without David. The point that women can do much in life even without the support of men is clearly made. She does get Christie to move on from David’s death and become successful being a single mother and an activist for other working women. So from the books point of view I would say it turned out well.]

I loved reading the book. I found online that part of the book is almost autobiographical. So I shouldn’t really judge it since at that point in time whatever mentioned in the book made sense. So looking in that way, overall it was good. I might re-read it. But not anytime soon. Maybe after a few years.

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